Quote, Unquote || Kate Santos 02/16/2025

From the moment we wake up until we get back to bed, we speak an average of 16,000 words to our family, friends, coworkers and strangers. It comes as naturally as breathing, making it something we may often take for granted. Words have more power than we realize and can yield positive and negative consequences.

Kate’s exhibit, Quote, Unquote, is a loose interpretation of a childhood game called “Pass the Message”.

It contemplates how messages, when passed through several channels, and subjected to individual interpretations, end up embellished, distorted, or sometimes completely different.

This happens in everyday conversation in forms such as hearsay, urban legend, folklore, gossip, word on the street. Even news from credible sources can quickly end up unrecognizable when passed through the endless channels of social media. Something very pertinent in current times.

The various configurations of quotation marks in these artworks therefore mirror the way messages flow and the unpredictable directions they take.

About the Artist

Kate’s interest in art started during a family trip to Europe, home of the works of great masters that withstood the test of time, remaining awe inspiring and relevant to this day. She graduated with BA Interdepartmental Studies with a minor in Fine Arts, took a summer course called the Alternative Foundation course in Slade School of Fine Art, and later on a Postgrad in Art History at Goldsmiths College. She worked as an artist from 2004 to 2010 but felt like it wasn’t the right time to delve into it just yet. Kate baked cookies and continued it as a business in between making art. Picking up her pen and ink once more in 2024, she hopes that this exhibit captures a better and wiser self.